WTF Is It Now?!?

Blah.
Blah, blah, blah. Work's been horrific, we keep losing the server connection at home, and the moon is in the wrong phase or something. I can hear people thinking "jeez, maru, what uninspired drivel these last couple of days." Yerp. I apologize. Please bear with me while I try to get my ass in gear.

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Nooze flash
Paul Bremer has left the building.

Followup: he is "returning unexpectedly to Washington for high level consultations amid continued frustration with the performance of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council."

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Darth Rummy: 'these are not the quotes you're looking for'
Rumsfeld denies he ever made several pre-war statements -

Feb 20: Rumsfeld, referring to American forces: "There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do."
Sept 25: "Never said that," he said. "Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said."

Sept. 18, 2002: Rumsfeld said Saddam "has amassed large clandestine stocks of biological weapons." including anthrax and botulism toxin and possibly smallpox. His regime has amassed large clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX and sarin and mustard gas." Saddam "has at this moment stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons," he added, repeating the charges the next day before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Oct 03: "You go back and give me something that talks about extensive stocks. The U.N. reported extensive stocks. That is where that came from. I said what I believed to be the case, and I don't - I'd be surprised if you found the word 'extensive."'

Well, he got us on that one!
Jeebus.